60-14 Integrated Investigation of the Granite Pass Reverse Fault, southwest NM

Session: 2YC and 4YCU Geoscience Student Research Poster Showcase

Poster Booth No.: 14

Presenting Author:

Margaret Sauer

Authors:

Sauer, Margaret¹, Copeland, Peter C.², Stewart, Robert³, Möller, Andreas⁴, Goldstein, Robert H.⁵, Sisson, Virginia B.⁶, Lineberry, Syd⁷, Lawton, Timothy F.⁸, Lane, Adam Eldon⁹, Shahriar, Md Upal¹⁰, Allison, Michael¹¹, Ojelabi, Oriyomi¹², Shen, Li Li¹³, Vermillion, Karissa¹⁴, Mongovin, Dan¹⁵

Abstract:

The Granite Pass reverse fault in the southern Little Hatchet Mountains in southwestern New Mexico is an important east-west-trending, south-dipping, Laramide structure that places Proterozoic granite over Permian carbonates. This feature was the focus of FIELDGeo, a NSF-supported program to increase participation of underrepresented groups in geoscience. Techniques applied to understanding the history of this fault include drone mapping, ground-penetrating radar, fission-track and U/He dating of the hanging wall, U-Pb dating of calcite from the footwall, fluid inclusion studies of the Earp Formation (Permian) in the footwall, and a magnetic and seismic survey across the fault. Preliminary geophysical data suggest a fault in the subsurface with a dip to the south consistent with estimates based on surface mapping (Clinkscales and Lawton, 2017). Analysis of calcite veins from the Earp formation so far indicate [U] too low for resolvable dating; primary freshwater fluid inclusions in these same samples equilibrated at temperature of ~100°C, and secondary inclusions (in fractures) have hominization temperatures of ~180°C. These temperatures were likely locked in prior to the mid Oligocene. 

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-10518

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